Hamlet

I'm not sure that I would expect a whole lot from the ongoing #1 or PWJ #1. I think that there are more copies of those books than there are actual Punisher fans. Frankly, I think this is a character who's popularity has peaked and is on the decline (outside of his first appearance).

I think that Punisher #1 belongs in the "buy at $1, sell at $3" category (for VFish copies).

Punisher limited series, regular #1-18 (especially #8-10), and PWJ #1, 6, 7 are all ridiculously undervalued and underappreciated.

 

There was a time when Punisher #1 mini sold for $50, and the ongoing for $30...now, you can frequently buy the ongoing #1 for $1-$2...so I do.

 

#8-10 got caught in the "we're publishing this every six weeks (one of the oddest experiments of the 80's)" vortex, and were underordered at the time. Punisher #10 is still especially hard to find, relative to #1-7.

 

You got 'em? I'll buy all VF or better copies you have for $1 each.

I think the tie is one of the stupidest items of clothing ever invented. I'm in IT, and whenever I run into a management type who values wearing an expensive suit I start assuming that they are an insufficiently_thoughtful_person.

These guys don't look like "investors" to me . . . just sayin'

 

The second guys, no, since they're buying/debating Moderns off the shelf, but who knows about the first photo? I know people with *lots* of money who look exactly the same.

True, they just don't know how to dress and/or don't groom themselves cause comic guys don't care what they look like.

 

I've dressed like a bum going to local shows because it's a comic show. I wear nice ties and dress-shirts at work; I don't have to impress the dirtbag dealer I'm haggling with.

I just pulled a VF copy of this out of a dollar box

ALL Punisher books are undervalued imho, particularly Punisher #1 (unlimited).

 

How can you sell them if you don't buy them first?

Don't question it, just sell it

This.

 

Don't buy the tulips. Sell the tulips.

Citizen Kane.

Nice.

Did this Livewire girl appear in the actual television animated show first prior to being in a comic?

 

 

A comic book fan will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. One day, back in 1996, I was crossing over to my LCS in my mom's car, and as we pulled in, there was another car pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was finishing a copy of Superman Adventures #4. I only saw the back page preview for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.

 

And by girl, I mean Livewire.

 

TV episode titled Livewire premiered on September 13 1997, about 8 months later, according to Wikipedia.

How do you ever know its safe when you leave your house in the morning?

I'm not clear on why a craigslist interaction is considered more dangerous than any other interaction with people.

If I was a thief, I would want to come to your home, not have you come to mine.

How do you know it's safe when you go to someone's house for a craigslist ad?

Yeah, frankly I think a lot of this may just be about people not wanting to see the same movie over and over.

How many superhero movies does the general public want to see in a year? I think less than are currently being produced.

By my count, I it looks like the run rate on pure comic-based movies appears to be four a year (2013-- Thor DW, IM3, The Wolverine, Man of Steel, 2014-- Captain America WS, Amazing Spiderman 2, X-men DOFP, and GotG)

I think that there are only so many of these movies the general public is going to be up for seeing per year.

I'm sorry to see Sony running this franchise into the ground. Hopefully Marvel regains the rights very soon.

A third reboot is gonna be a tough sell even if Marvel does get it back. My

I don't blame anyone, I am just careful not to get caught in the hype. The 100s of dollars I lost in 90s comics saved me many 1000s during the dot com bubble.

I don't think most of these books are going to pure buyers though. I think that they are being sold mostly to other speculators, many of whom are buying way more than one copy.

An actual collector of these books is not going to get hurt too bad. If they buy an X-factor 6 for $40 on E-bay and it drops to $10, no big deal.

It's the guy who has accumulated a short box full of them that is going to be feeling the pain.

I think another generation is going to learn how a speculative bubble turns out.

 

That's the greatest concern during these speculation runs. Especially when you see an overabundance of each book available, and yet the prices keep climbing.

 

But I wouldn't blame the sellers on this. It is the buyers that keep coming back for more, and driving the prices up.

I wasn't really talking specifically about this book, but hot copper books in general. I think that most of these books are being driven by pure speculation, ala the early 90s.

I wonder how many people on these boards have 50+ copies of books like X-factor 6?

I think another generation is going to learn how a speculative bubble turns out.

I disagree with selling this quickly. I hunted a long time and many comic stores, private collections etc....and it seems to be a tough book to find out in the wild. I bought a unread high grade run of Superman Adventures from someone who collected runs and this book was missing....I found a couple copies and one is going to CGC this week.

 

I think the more people realize how tough a book it can be to locate, prices will continue to rise. It was a title catered to "children" and these tend to be more difficult in high grade. - I've seen sales of $100 on this one already....

Sell quick baby, and may the Devil take the hindmost.

I still want to know why.

 

Harley Quinn built up a fanbase over many years, had her own relatively short-lived title, benefits from her association with one of the most popular villains in comics, etc. and only recently really took off.

 

Livewire has made a handful of appearances in the DCU... and?

 

Are we really back in the early 90s?

This time you'll wait until after it's cooled off to sell?

Unless a book is hard to find, I think it makes sense to sell while the selling is good.

I bought a collection last year that had the entire Hellblazer run. It also had the entire Preacher run and I sold it right before it blew up...

 

I still have the HB run and I won't make the same mistake.

Yes, the cover is good.

I just re-read the comic itself though, and that is another story.

Here is one of the highlights...the single best Punisher cover of the title after #129:

 

 

A perfect cover.

Back to the original point of the thread, I have to say that this is the winner for me. I've got nothing against this cover.

I agree that the first five issues of the McFarlane Spiderman series were awful. I remember thinking that they managed to stretch a one issue story into five issues.

I was speaking mainly about the ASM issues, which I felt were way better than most of the issues in the three years previous. Thinking back, it was mostly the writing that made those three years awful, rather than specifically the art.

I remember getting my subscription books in the mail, hoping for a Hobgoblin appearance, and then getting Spider-kid, or Frog-guy, or the Beyonder garbage, Slide-guy, etc, etc. It was three years of completely forgettable one-shot villains, with about six decent issues total.

McFarlane started and three issues in we got Venom.

I continued on through Larsen, struggling to read those stories as well, but the final straw for me was buying Spider-man #5.

It was Part 5 of McFarlane's first story arc in the new Spider-man book and I finally forced myself to read them all back to back. I was so unimpressed, I quit collecting Spider-man right there and then.

 

I'll always have a fondness for the character. But Marvel changed during that time. Style became more important than substance. The artist was more important than the story, though NOT the ART. The actual artist.

You made it through stuff like--

http://marvel.wikia.com/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_262

http://marvel.wikia.com/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_263

http://marvel.wikia.com/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_264

http://marvel.wikia.com/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_266

http://marvel.wikia.com/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_267

http://marvel.wikia.com/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_268

but McFarlane drove you from ASM?

McFarlane drove me off the Hulk and ASM.

I started collecting comics with issue 260 of ASM. That was a pretty cool Hobgoblin appearance. So was 261. For the next three years, if it wasn't a Hobgoblin appearance, it was a pretty forgettable comic for the most part (Kraven's Last Hunt being a big exception).

So when McFarlane started on ASM, I was thrilled. He was a huge improvement over the completely forgettable stuff that proceeded him on the ASM run.

I never got into McFarlane's work - I neither liked it, nor disliked it. I remember reading Spawn and being into the book, but I don't have nostalgic feelings about the work like I have with other 90's titles.

The fundamental problem here is that I still don't think we can say with any real confidence whether or not the book was trimmed. CGC is making an educated guess, but that is all it is.

Prices have gotten so crazy that many thousands of dollars now ride on what is essentially a guess.

The question becomes--

What percentage of trimming is CGC missing?

What percentage of trimming that CGC finds is actually not there?

If those are not tiny percentages, I'm thinking I'd rather just buy a trimmed PLOD and be confident that I'm at least getting what I paid for.

I don't know about anyone else, but this thread makes me want to start collecting trimmed books.

Nothing but upside!

They actually make wax specifically for this purpose that melts at a much more comfortable temperature.

Not that I'm looking to see pictures of it on this message board.

I'm not sure liking women in the issue. It would be fine if you found men attractive...I wouldn't be comfortable if you wanted to pour hot wax on them though.

 

Raise your hand if anyone here has ever been to a salon (or some other place)where they used hot wax? and that stuff is not in liquid form, it's really just warm.

 

I'd definitely take the Action 1.

If you made it an equivalent value of Fantastic Four 52s though, I'd have a tough time choosing

You may be right, but the books/properties with the shortest history are always the ones to fall the first and the farthest. i.e. Moderns.

 

In the event of a total market meltdown, which would you rather be holding:

 

1) A mid-grade CGC copy of Action 1

 

or

 

2) The equivalent value in CGC 9.8 TWD #1's

 

If you answered 2), go hit your head against the wall until you feel like picking 1).

My problem is that I feel the same way about almost the entire comic market.

It's been giving me a real 1990 vibe lately.

I like the Walking Dead too, but I'd have to be brain-dead to pay current prices for this flash-in-the-pan.

I think that when people are willing to pay a massive premium for a book, it counts as a key

Is CSS 22 a key?

That makes sense. I would guess, even allowing for rarity, it's much easier to hunt down books than it was 15 or 20 years ago for a dealer. Information, on all fronts, just travels more broadly and quickly.

 

From my own perspective, I was able to "view" and buy an ultra tough key - Suspense 3 () - within the comfort of my own living room. Just giving you a hard time.

 

Thanks Rick for the always thoughtful response.

 

-Keston

suspense 3 is a key?!

suspense 3 is in no way a key

Put me down for being in favor of not enforcing this rule.

If there's general lack of support among the community for enforcement of this rule, I'll back off. That's what I'm trying to get a sense of by continuing to bring this up for discussion here. However, if that's the case, I would encourage someone to lead an effort to remove this rule from the books so that in the future we can avoid issues that have arisen as a result of the lukewarm and inconsistent enforcement of this rule.

I read them last night. I'm pretty sure that I must have skipped reading them when I originally bought them. Not awful, but I think I'd rather have the cash that they are going for on Ebay than the books.

Time will tell if I ever get off my butt to scan and sell them though.

I don't know if I'd wait that long . . .

 

I bought them off the stands, but I can't actually remember anything about them. I'm not sure if that is because I didn't read them, or because they weren't very good. I'll have to read my 5 and 6 before I sell them.

 

I remember the first issue being a grand deal, but soon afterward... nothing. I'm surprised it faded that quickly.

Why doesn't everyone just switch over to a competitor of Ebay?

People look at GA/SA/BA, so people prefer to put their sales threads there, so people continue to look at GA/SA/BA. It's a self-fulfilling thing.

I can pull up the first page of GA/SA/BA and there is a pretty good bet that there are books I'm interested in.

That's not generally the case in Mixed, so I usually forget to check it.

On another note, is it wrong that I am sort of hoping that someone puts a sales thread in Mixed that only has GA/BA/SA books and the Mods move it.

Dale,

 

I applaud you for that decision, sir.

 

Although I think the separate thread approach provides a nice, clean structure, Rupp raises an interesting point about putting the thread back in Mixed that relates to my thoughts about Mixed that I didn't want to digress to earlier...

 

This is for all of us to consider:

Why is Mixed a four-letter word? If any of us thinks it’s better to have our books in one large thread for whatever reason, why not run our threads in Mixed? That’s what it’s there for. Is it because it’s a “low traffic” area…no one goes there...it's too much trouble to check it…is that it? I don’t think that’s true…say I’m browsing the boards, I have some money with which to buy comics…I think, ‘hey, I wonder if there are any good threads in Mixed’…I click the link. Why does no one go there…because there are never any good sales threads there? Is that why? I assure you that if Dale Roberts was running an epic sales thread in Mixed, I'd go there. Do you see how this is endogenous? If people put quality combined threads in Mixed instead of incorrectly putting them elsewhere, Mixed would not be a low traffic area…people would go there, and sellers would love putting their threads there. It’s self-fulfilling! You could make a case that the collective rules violations (putting combined threads elsewhere) are a key cause of why Mixed is a low traffic area!